So I think it's been said a lot that INFPs (or N types in general) are usually quite intelligent.

Personally, in secondary school my form teacher and friends always said that I was the type of student who "doesn't need to study and can still get an A". I don't think I'm THAT lazy, but I definitely think I'm quite disorganised when it comes to studying - it can be quite susceptible to my mood as well - and I definitely am not as hardworking as a lot of people around me. I was fourth in my secondary school for the national exams (to be fair, it wasn't a prestigious school) and right now in junior college (the mad 'A' levels) I'm coping fairly well, except in Mathematics. (I've been failing consistently, ha ha ha.)

So I was just wondering if the INFPs out there are similar to me. Do you find that you can still cope okay without working extra hard?

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That test wants to sell profiles, I think tests like that tend to give you higher scores (though I don't know for sure with this one, but I once took one that gave me 156, haha, I certainly don't have such a high score, complete bogus), as you might be more inclined to buy then, as who wants profiles and certificates that say you have below average intelligence?

A bit the same goes for IQ-thread here I would guess, not so many who get a low score will dare to post it, or will not feel as motivated to take the test, so it will seem like all the infps here have higher IQ than the mean score would really be.

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IQ tests are severly restricted to rational and logical thinking, imo they're only covering one dimension of a cube.
I thus consider them quite inaccurate in many ways, people who get low are underestimated while people who gets high are overestimated.

So I think it's been said a lot that INFPs (or N types in general) are usually quite intelligent.

Personally, in secondary school my form teacher and friends always said that I was the type of student who "doesn't need to study and can still get an A". I don't think I'm THAT lazy, but I definitely think I'm quite disorganised when it comes to studying - it can be quite susceptible to my mood as well - and I definitely am not as hardworking as a lot of people around me. I was fourth in my secondary school for the national exams (to be fair, it wasn't a prestigious school) and right now in junior college (the mad 'A' levels) I'm coping fairly well, except in Mathematics. (I've been failing consistently, ha ha ha.)

So I was just wondering if the INFPs out there are similar to me. Do you find that you can still cope okay without working extra hard?

I don't think my IQ would indicate the kind of mental processing that I"m capapble of. (Besides that, I hate IQ tests with a passion.)

I have a linking kind of intellligence which enables me to make some observations then hypothesize and test theories in order to teach myself on the fly what I may not have previously understood. In this way I am autodidactic. This mental process is automatic for me.

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"...linking kind of intelligence..."
Yes, that resonates with me. Figure out and associate is my area, categorising and pinning things down to their exact definition and remembering details, that is not at all my area.

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Hey, that's the same score I got back when I took an IQ test as a kid. I won't take them now, though because I don't really like the idea of IQ. I feel like it's more of a measure of how well you were educated in specific areas rather than how "smart" you are. I know a few people who are really, really intelligent in unconventional ways, but can't take tests to save their lives.

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The online test gave me a 144 today, though the validity of that particular test is dubious at best.

Truth be told, I don't consider myself intelligent. I make it a point to search for knowledge and wisdom, of course, but I've noticed that people only call me "smart" when I obey them, do something they like, or give them the answer they are looking for. That is not how I wish to be construed.

MOTM Dec 2011

IQ tests are severly restricted to rational and logical thinking, imo they're only covering one dimension of a cube.
I thus consider them quite inaccurate in many ways, people who get low are underestimated while people who gets high are overestimated.

Yet, all the statistics out there on MBTI and IQ place INFPs in the top 4, along with the other INxx types. This gets overlooked a lot, such as on that site CelebrityTypes - Overview which has every INxx type being noted as "amongst the types with the highest average IQ" EXCEPT for INFPs.

Of course, Feeling in Jungian terms IS rational...

But this also suggests it's more a matter of introversion and intuition, as far as MBTI goes. Intuition seems the most common factor, as all the N types tend to be listed higher than the S types for average IQ. Gifts Differing has a good explanation for why that may be, so that it would be inaccurate to say S types are less likely to be highly intelligent, and it also points out a flaw in the IQ system itself.
Speed is valued, but while S types may learn quickly, they may not TEST quickly people they may prefer to look over details more, double check, and work very linearly. N types tend to work faster, which can lead to more errors, but if quickness to grasp is also present, then they have a major advantage by moving through a test quickly.

Okay then...
I got 145 yay! roud:
Last time I took this exact same test I got 138 though, I slip up on obvious maths stuff. This time I lost count of something twice.
The other time I took this was apparently 2nd January 2013, and it's interesting I did better now since I have very tangibly felt my processing power slipping in the past year. So, more to be sceptical of?

I do have a beef with IQ tests, and the online ones are the worst; depending on the nature of what's in them your results will fluctuate massively. I've got from 108 to somewhere over 150 before and it's quite apparent that it's very variable depending on what strengths you are able to play to, if at all. Just my maths terminology is crap and I expect I lost points for it; I can't really recognise patterns in sequences and fail badly at that, but I'm great at doing the 3d shape mental rotating thing. It's not a unitary score based on the same criteria. I have different strengths as does everyone; trying to compare them as an aggregate is just troublesome.

Personally, in secondary school my form teacher and friends always said that I was the type of student who "doesn't need to study and can still get an A". I don't think I'm THAT lazy, but I definitely think I'm quite disorganised when it comes to studying - it can be quite susceptible to my mood as well - and I definitely am not as hardworking as a lot of people around me. I was fourth in my secondary school for the national exams (to be fair, it wasn't a prestigious school) and right now in junior college (the mad 'A' levels) I'm coping fairly well, except in Mathematics. (I've been failing consistently, ha ha ha.)

So I was just wondering if the INFPs out there are similar to me. Do you find that you can still cope okay without working extra hard?

For what it's worth, I am horrible at this. I didn't revise for my GCSEs at all and did okay, straight Bs which aren't bad considering the scores are built on a bell-curve, not a linear direction. Last year, I got Cs and Ds at AS-levels having done like half an hour revising before each paper, but this year I resat everything, and my A2s, and got straight Bs overall with about an hour revision per paper. The main change I made was just to learn the system better and I procrastinated like mad. It was infuriating, and yet I managed to get As in 4 papers.
I can do great when I apply myself. It's just...I don't apply myself. I'm not saying that as a boast or something because had I applied myself I think I could have done substantially better, but I did fairly well. My teachers formed the same impression of me and I got away with a lot because of it, I'd do very little and often not turn up, but my understanding was good and I'd hand in good essays.
The flip side is, I studied subjects I actually liked, even if I didn't like what was in the curriculum, so I had that understanding and interest. In places where I could just apply myself and learn something a little different and power through I'm too disinterested and do crap. I really don't think I could have managed A-level maths, for instance, because I'm so stubborn like that.

Anecdotally I get the impression lots of INFPs have the same kind of work ethic. If you can call it that.

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IQ tests were designed by NTs and it's geared towards NT definitions of intelligence. Although NTs probably fair best, NFs probably do quite well. Who doesn't do well? Well, most of the sensors. There's the bell curve for you. If anything, MBTI ought to make people more aware of the 8 functional strengths, and 16 combinations of intelligence. The only people who dick-wave IQ are the same people who think their MBTI type is superior, and as an INTJ, yeah, that's pretty much us, the ENTJ's, and the INTPs.

INTJ | 5w4 | ILI-0 (INTp)Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air. -EmersonGo confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined. -ThoreauIn the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer. -CamusIf my eyes could show my soul, everyone would cry when they saw me smile. -Kurt Cobain​

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IQ tests are really unfair measures of intelligence, and I'll tell you why. I was born with mild Hemiplegic Spastic Cerebral Palsy, which affects the right side of my body, thus the left side of my brain is scarred at the basal ganglia due to
a prenatal stroke. The IQ test requires a person to only use bilateral rational thinking and visual/spatial/motor processing skills. All factors that were unfair in my case, since I have dyscalculia as a result of my disability, trouble using my right hand, and weaker visual/spatial perception.
I did great at things like reading fluency, verbal skills, vocabulary, spelling, verbal skills, and good writing (the second time around), but my math and processing/motor/visual/spatial skills were weak, and dropped down the average of my overall IQ score to a low average of 83.
For a long time, the IQ test destroyed my self-confidence, even though I knew deep inside that it was inaccurate and that it didn't define me. However, the implications of my score did.
The funny thing is that some people say that the genius Albert Einstein (INTP) probably would have scored low on an IQ test because his mind went above and beyond the confines of "pure logical analysis." Does this mean that he wasn't a genius? Of course not. The man created the theory of relativity, and picked up on things that most couldn't begin to understand with their mundane intelligence and common sense. Einstein was an abstract thinker because he was creative and thought "outside of the box."

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Yet, all the statistics out there on MBTI and IQ place INFPs in the top 4, along with the other INxx types. This gets overlooked a lot, such as on that site CelebrityTypes - Overview which has every INxx type being noted as "amongst the types with the highest average IQ" EXCEPT for INFPs.

Of course, Feeling in Jungian terms IS rational...

But this also suggests it's more a matter of introversion and intuition, as far as MBTI goes. Intuition seems the most common factor, as all the N types tend to be listed higher than the S types for average IQ. Gifts Differing has a good explanation for why that may be, so that it would be inaccurate to say S types are less likely to be highly intelligent, and it also points out a flaw in the IQ system itself.
Speed is valued, but while S types may learn quickly, they may not TEST quickly people they may prefer to look over details more, double check, and work very linearly. N types tend to work faster, which can lead to more errors, but if quickness to grasp is also present, then they have a major advantage by moving through a test quickly.

good thinking! That is indead the thing that I changed in taking these tests. And of course you can learn the kind of patterns you want to look for.
Also strange: I tend to score 'almost native speaker' on any language I speak, but I'm sure most of you have been annoyed with my mistakes. So testing languages has the same flaws.

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IQ tests inaccurately measure intelligence because of how many environmental and cultural factors must be taken into account when grading someone's test. I have taken IQ tests online, they're bullshit. IQ tests are, by nature, culturally biased, and white children with more cultural capital (and thus larger vocabulary, more information readily available at younger ages, generally higher potential in the world of academia in general) will score higher than children without the same level of status. I took an IQ test when I was younger, maybe 10, and seeing psychiatrists, I scored 126 (+/-3), which is at the genius level, my brother and father are at similar levels, my mother probably is too.

This high score doesn't help me from feeling as though I am a complete failure in life. The fear that I will never (and have not) amount(ed) to anything doesn't just go away because I know a test that checks for pattern recognition, made by white people, told me that I am intelligent.

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Many sites claim he was and I find their arguments very convincing, but I feel it's almost too stereotypical to type him as that just because he wrote fantasy novels. Thoughts?
Also for a bonus do you agree with my typings for the characters in Lord of the Rings?
I've just started reading...

So I'm pretty sure my boyfriend of 2 years is an ESTJ. He's taken the test and he gets ExTJ but I've come to the conclusion he's ESTJ based on his practical nature around the house, his love of history, his attention to detail etc.
I was quite surprised when I learned his type because I didn't...

I want this to be a place where we can talk about what is really going on in our minds. Let out your feelings, your thoughts, desires, and confusions of every kind. If you have an insight, or a depressing thought....do share. There are no boundaries here. :)